It is nothing more than a lie, this so called Progressive Christianity, so say so many true Christian leaders today. And a big one, A BIG LIE.
So called Progressive Christianity is a new religious movement that claims the term CHRISTIAN but denies the full authority of scripture on which “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) is based. In an incredibly hypocritical way, proclaiming allegiance to Progressive Christianity allows one to claim a commitment to the faith that Jesus Christ taught in the gospels but, in essence, pick and choose what you wish to believe from scripture, leaving out the rest.
This hypocritical movement, this LIE is served up to the American public by the political and social left, the radical left which means that Christians supposedly have a choice between adopting the new sexuality, new lifestyles and new morality or affirm the full authority of scripture and be ostracized by the postmodern, POST TRUTH culture. Some Christians, even some evangelicals opt in, not wanting to be hated or ostracized, comprise with this itself compromised culture while for real and true Christians, affirming the scriptures in its entirety and shunning the progressive sexuality is an easy choice.
Albert Mohler Jr., President of THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY in Louisville Kentucky thinks that many Christians will seek the middle ground, that is compromise with today’s prevailing culture on moral positions and he describes these compromising Christians as those who are trying to hide in the tall grass without taking a stand and that he says will not work. So many young Christians today do not want to appear HATEFUL, but loving, tolerant, compromising, believing in the individual choice with respect to morality as opposed to any kind of:
ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
The bible for example is not the INERRANT word of God, not infallible but rather a guide, suggestive, something to be interpreted and followed or ignored as a result of the individual’s consciousness. And so, these Christians think progressively, claiming belief in the bible yet dismissing passages they deem stumbling blocks to liberals, even those who may barely believe in God. In short, this postmodern theology shuns CERTAINTY (anything absolute) and celebrates MYSTERY, the search, the hunt, the maturity of the consciousness as the right and individual guide to life. These postmodern searchers seek to find “grace in the search for understanding” believing there is more value in questioning than in merely accepting absolutes. Do with the bible, its moral tenets and its so called absolutes – commandments as you will but question everything and follow your FEELINGS. And that is the LIE of Progressive Christianity, a modern blasphemy of the highest order.
This Progressive Christianity denies that Christian truth and claims trump all of the religions. This movement does not accept or at least seriously questions the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. And HIS virgin birth. And many of the miracles he supposedly committed. And even to some extent that he was divine. In an effort to be tolerant, loving so called, Progressive Christianity believes that there are many paths to God and in essence, one religion has no more monopoly on truth than any other. So that, as long as any individual is in the search for truth or adopting the faith and tenets of another religion, there is no need to evangelize for in that ultimate conversion sense, there really is no difference in religion, none better, none possessing THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.
Rather, they emphasize this NEW SOCIAL JUSTICE EMPHASIS. In fact, Progressive Christianity emphasizes social justice to the point where it is made to be equal with or even superior to salvation itself. These Progressive Christians are the possessors of a new enlightenment:
A NEW WOKE.
That, the Progressives say, there is much more to salvation than merely grace, the gift of God, acceptance of Christ, forgiveness of sins and the simple standards of salvation and conversion. Much more to it, they say, and that is so no matter what scripture says. These Progressives call on all Christians to believe accordingly, and especially evangelicals. The attempt is to water down the faith once given and, as wolves in sheeps clothing, create a new movement, a new apostasy and fundamentally change traditional Christianity. Today’s Christian, especially the younger Christians are then called upon to choose, for there really is no middle ground on these moral issues. Christians will either compromise or stand firm and if they stand firm in the belief of the authority of scripture and the basic tenets of salvation, they would well be labeled as subversive and of course hateful, and the full force of modern culture and even constitutional law itself would come against them. The choice is so critical says Albert Mohler that:
“Christians are going to have to answer with a full measure of conviction or they’re just on a slower track than some others to denying the faith!”
For to compromise, to deny is to deny the faith and adopt THE PROGRESSIVE LIE. And, nothing could corrupt the gospel more than such compromise, nothing.
In extreme cases, Progressive Christianity at its worst is even ready to adopt and embrace ATHEISTS. Recently, the leadership of the United Church of Canada voted to keep a self-proclaimed Atheist in her post as LEAD MINISTER of a church in Toronto. The denomination embraced the Reverend Gretta Vosper even though she emphatically stated that there was no God, the most fundamental tenet of all in Christianity. She was embraced as an attempt by the denomination to define INCLUSIVENESS, accepting anybody believing anything. Some even downplay the immorality of pornography as long as it is “ethically-sourced,” whatever that means. That led one conservative theologian to state that the lie of Progressive Christianity is indeed:
ANYTHING GOES
as long as it is good and right for you and your conscience. Responding to this theological madness, Jay Gresham Machen said of liberals in that day, equally true of those today, that what they the progressives are teaching is NOT CHRISTIANITY AT ALL! It is a completely different religion, A SOCIAL REFORM AGENDA fueled by feelings, informed by secular thought, while barely draped with religious language!
And, that it is, individual conscience run amuck. There is this modern day attempt to hang on to some things religious, something of scripture, something of the bible but to deny anything and everything which may be authoritative, absolute and traditional. Salvation is not mere grace, by faith, not just the gift of God, but a process entangled with social justice, works and modern day cultural demands for something more than acceptance and belief. Nothing is a greater apostasy or blasphemy than that. The lie of Progressive Christianity is the weaponized onslaught of a progressive culture which will eventually totally deny Christianity and, in the words of one Progressive, wipe it from the face of the earth.
So, my fellow Christian, you have a choice to make. You can compromise and adopt the new LOVE. You can accept all and all religions. You can search for truths like they do. Or you can champion the true love of Christ and stand tall for the faith once given or compromise with them, adopting as you do the progressive lies one by one. I for one hope and pray that you stand tall, that you have the courage to lay all on the alter and STAND for the inerrant truth of the bible, for absolute belief in the Christ of glory. It is the only, the right way!